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Microsoft is doubling down on its India focus.

The tech giant has partnered with Sarvam AI to make its Indic voice LLM available on its Azure cloud computing platform. 

The company’s Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella, on a visit to India for the Microsoft AI tour, also announced the expansion of Code; Without Borders programme to train 75,000 Indian women developers this year. 

Meanwhile, the heat is on Paytm. 

The RBI explained that its clampdown on the fintech’s barking arm was the result of “persistent non-compliance”. Deputy Governor Swaminathan J added that the regulator will provide “suitable steps” to ensure customer inconvenience is minimised.

Paytm’s shares on Thursday slumped again after a two-day gain, hitting the lower circuit of 10% at Rs 446 apiece.

Elsewhere, SoftBank Vision Funds noted the combined fair value of its portfolio in India was worth $13.8 billion—9% of its global investments. The Masayoshi Son-led firm posted a profit after four quarters, earning $6.6 billion in the quarter ended December 2023.  

And lastly, a nuclear fusion reactor just set a new world record. 

UK-based JET Laboratory produced 19 kW of energy over 5 seconds. While it may seem minuscule, nuclear fusion energy can be successfully scaled up as a source of clean power.

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Zomato’s Q3 profit zooms
• A Factor Notes story
• KRAFTON’s $1.4B sales

Here’s your trivia for today: Which metal were Oscar statues made of before switching to bronze in 2016?

Foodtech

Zomato’s Q3 net profit zooms 283%

Zomato posted profit for the third straight quarter at Rs 138 crore in Q3 FY24, up from a loss of Rs 347 crore in the same period last year. This was bolstered by a strong performance of food delivery and its B2B supplies business Hyperpure.

The food and grocery delivery firm’s net profit surged by a whopping 283% from just Rs 36 crore last quarter. Its operating revenue rose 69% to Rs 3,288 crore from Rs 1,948 crore in the year-ago period.

Key takeaways:

• Its food delivery—its largest business by revenue—earned an operating revenue of Rs 1,704 crore against Rs 1,151 crore in the December quarter last year.
• In Q3 FY24, Hyperpure—Zomato’s second-largest vertical by revenue—posted an operational revenue of Rs 859 crore, doubling from Rs 421 crore earned in the same period last fiscal year.
• Hyperpure is working on setting up a plant to process food supplies like sauces, spreads, and pre-cut and semi-finished perishable products to expand its offerings for restaurants.

MSME

A Factor Notes story

Factor Notes, a Kochi-based stationery brand, is capitalising on the newfound love for journals and personalised planners in the markets of India, the UAE and Africa. The business now rakes in a multi-crore revenue with a presence across 4,500 stores and a customer base of 3 million. 

The brand recently partnered with one of India’s leading stationery retail chains, Crossword, and its products are available at its stores as well.

Take note:

• Sachin and Nasaf decided to enter the stationery business for the love of design. They also sensed the gap in the market for quirky stationery with a premium look and feel. 
• Factor Notes offers a range of 250 SKUs across the categories of journals, planners, organisers, art supplies, and stationery items such as sticky notes, sticker books, and game cards.
• Today, the brand has a network of 20 distributors for offline retail, while its online presence spans Amazon, Flipkart, JioMart, and Local Nation and its own ecommerce site.

Gaming

KRAFTON posts $1.4B sales in 2023

KRAFTON posted $1.4 billion in sales in 2023, clocking a 3.1% YoY growth. According to the company, after resuming services last year, its mobile game Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) quickly recovered both traffic and revenue, recording the largest monthly sales in December. 

Big play:

• The company made a net profit of $446 million (594.1 billion won), at an 18.8% year-on-year growth. 
• The South Korean game maker told investors BGMI now holds a dominant position in the Indian esports market and has kept an India-first approach. 
• BGMI and PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS were major drivers for sales in 2023. KRAFTON expressed robust growth prospects for PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS, and its business and game portfolio in the Indian market.

News & updates

• Revamp: Google has renamed Bard to Gemini to reflect its latest, most advanced AI model of that name. It also announced that Gemini Ultra 1.0—the largest and most capable version of Google’s LLM—is being released to the public. 
• Safe tech: The US said leading AI companies are among more than 200 entities joining a new consortium to support the safe development and deployment of Gen AI. The US AI Safety Institute Consortium includes OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Meta, Apple, Amazon, Nvidia, Intel, JPMorgan Chase, and Bank of America.
• Tay-Tay effect: Disney’s chief executive, Bob Iger, has announced a series of moves in the hope of bringing “significant growth”. The plans include streaming an exclusive version of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour concert movie on Disney+. The firm will also invest $1.5 billion in Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite.

Which metal were Oscar statues made of before switching to bronze in 2016?

Answer: Britannia. It’s a pewter-like alloy that is used to buff to a smooth finish.

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